Rick Hill is the Valero Alamo Bowl’s VP of Marketing and Communications. Prior to the bowl, Rick spent 6 years working for the Spurs, one season with Missions Baseball and two fruitless months trying to sell season tickets for the S.A. Riders.

Note: This is an mySA.com City Brights Blog. These blogs are not written or edited by mySA or the San Antonio Express-News. The authors are solely responsible for the content.

Questions ESPN Should Have Asked LeBron

“Who cares what team LeBron James decides to play for next year?” was the most popular update I saw from my friends on Facebook yesterday. This morning the answer is a lot as akmost 10 million viewers tuned into ESPN’s broadcast of “The Decision” surpassing the viewership of LeBron’s appearance in the 2007 NBA Finals when the Cavs lost to the Spurs.

Others questioned ESPN’s journalistic credibility including the Boston Globe’s Bob Ryan who is a staple on the network’s Sports Reporters show. Ryan wrote “If the arrangement of four certain letters were ever coincidental, it is no longer. E comes before S in ESPN. Entertainment before sports. Never more so than last night.”

I’m surprised LeBron is not shouldering more of the blame for the spectacle than the four letter network (I think Cavs owner Dan Gilbert’s “open letter” shows he agrees with me ). It was his idea for the show and if ESPN declined it would have aired on TNT.

I also hold the contrarian view on the length of the show as I thought the hour long broadcast was well-produced and interesting. However, I do have an issue it took 16 questions and 27 minutes to ask LeBron where he was going. My other major complaint was the questions Jim Gray, Stuart Scott, Michael Wilbon and Jon Barry did not ask.

Instead of asking if he still bites his nails, here is a list of questions I compiled while watching the show that I thought needed to be answered:

Why do you think it was a good idea to make your announcement in this format? If you could go back and do it over what would have done anything differently?

Where you leaning toward Cleveland when you scheduled this show as it seems horribly insensitive to let down a whole town in such a public way?

Would you have stayed in Cleveland if Bosh agreed to join you there?

What effect did Mike Brown and Danny Ferry leaving the Cavaliers have on your decision?

Are the contracts of you, Bosh and Wade going to be equal in dollars and number of years? Would you have a problem with Wade signing for more years and money?

You had the best regular season record with the Cavs. What makes you think you’ll be better in Miami with three stars and 9 fill-ins?

How do you respond to the criticism that you are loyal to your high school friends to a fault and that having them in your inner circle has made for bad career choices?

Speaking of your inner circle, when you named the people who helped you with this decision you didn’t mention Wiliam “World Wide” Wes. What is your affiliation with him?

The last question I need answered is when do the NBA schedules come out. I’ll be tuning in when the Heat play in Cleveland and marking my calendar when LeBron and Company come to San Antonio. As a Spurs season ticket holder, my Cavs and Raptors tickets lost a lot of value but the Heat game will rival the Lakers.

Rick Hill

One Response

Even if you’re tired of the LeBron saga, please read this well-done article from Adrian Wojnarowski at Yahoo! Sports: http://yhoo.it/d9U30P

Other interesting tidbits from today: CNBC reported Jim Gray was paid by the James camp to do the interview and ESPN’s Chris Broussard said LeBron soured on going to Chicago when they wouldn’t get his entourage jobs nor fly his family on the team plane.

Note: This is an mySA.com City Brights Blog. These blogs are not written or edited by mySA or the San Antonio Express-News. The authors are solely responsible for the content.

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